Monday Buzz: Phil Rothfield reveals his top 10 buys of the 2024 NRL season

With five players on over $800K the Manly Sea Eagles had to reinvent a couple of NRL discards in order to remain competitive writes PHIL ROTHFIELD.

Buzz's top ten buys of the NRL season.

One started the year on a $1500 train-and-trial contract, another was on the minimum NRL salary.

Then there’s the one who was axed from his two previous clubs.

Now they’ve come from nowhere to be among the 10 best buys in the NRL this year.

Roster management and recruitment is more important than anything else in rugby league.

You can have a super coach like Wayne Bennett, Craig Bellamy, Trent Robinson or Ivan Cleary but you still need to strategically pull together a balanced roster of million-dollar players mixed in reliable week in, week out performers.

Today we reveal our top-10 signings for the year. It’s fascinating because there are so many bargain buys like Nathan Brown and Tommy Talau at Manly, Kyle Flanagan at Saints and Brad Schneider at Penrith – all of them on under $300,000.

(L-R) Nathan Brown and Tommy Talau.

At the beginning of the year Manly had five players earning over $800,000 – Tom and Jake Trbojevic, Daly Cherry-Evans, Haumole Olakau’atu and Josh Schuster, forcing coach Anthony Seibold to bring in cheapies from rival clubs who have delivered in spades.

So here we go:

Unlucky to miss out is Jack Wighton (Rabbitohs), Josh Curran (Bulldogs), Tom Eisenhuth (Dragons), Dominic Young (Roosters) and Bronson Xerri (Bulldogs), who all wouldn’t be out of place in the top 10.

Eisenhuth joined Saints from Melbourne Storm on minimum wage (about $130,000) and has been a rock-solid middle-field performer all year. He is nicknamed ‘The GOAT’ by his teammates.